Red Sox: Nathan Eovaldi delivered the heat on a cold Opening Day

Don’t blame Nathan Eovaldi for the Boston Red Sox 3-0 Opening Day loss.

In fact, the right-handed flame thrower looked every bit much like an ace in taking over the Opening Day starter role from Eduardo Rodriguez after the lefty was placed on the disabled list.

On a cold day at Fenway park, Eovaldi brought the heat, giving up just 4 hits and a run over 5 1/3 innings pitched. Unfortunately, Baltimore Orioles starter John Means was even better in holding the Red Sox lineup to just one hit in his stellar outing.

In throwing just 89 pitches, Eovaldi looked very strong on the mound as he dazzled his way through the Orioles lineup until that sixth inning when a Kike Hernandez error led to a bases loaded opportunity for Baltimore in which Ryan Mountcastle smacked a two-run double off the Green Monster to put the Orioles ahead for good.

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Red Sox manager Alex Cora with a questionable decision

The hit didn’t come off Eovaldi who was lifted in a questionable decision by Red Sox manager Alex Cora, but he was responsible for the run that ended up being the winning run in the game.

In his decision to make a pitching change in that particular situation, Cora explained by taking out a very effective Eovaldi was a necessary move.  In hindsight a not so popular move, but at the moment Cora was thinking ahead.

"“The pitch count was getting where it felt like it just makes sense before the start that that was it for him,” Cora said following the game, via Masslive.com.  “We’ve got to make sure.  He’s pitching on regular rest the next one.  So, you’ve got to think now and think ahead.  [Matt] Andriese is a guy that he gets groundballs.  He walks [Trey] Mancini.  He gets a groundball after that, we make an error and then obviously they score two.  That was where we were pitching-wise, pitch-count wise.  So, we felt comfortable with him (Andriese) going in that situation.”"

While fans would’ve loved to see Nathan Eovaldi finish his gem or at least get the opportunity for a win, Cora played it right.

Andriese did come to the mound and delivered a ground ball that would’ve ended the inning with a double play had Hernandez made the play.  But, in a game like that dominated by two starting pitches, miscues like that end up being the difference.  Unfortunately, for Eovaldi and the Red Sox on Opening Day, the ball didn’t go roll their way.

Nathan Eovaldi tosses optimism despite loss

While the Boston Red Sox bats were colder than the wind chill at Fenway Park, the team has to be encouraged by how Eovaldi performed.

In mixing up his pitches, particularly infusing his slider, the Red Sox righty got his confidence back on the mound which hopefully will lead to more consistency and more performances like Friday afternoon.

"“It got to the point (in 2020) when I was throwing my slider that it started blending in more with my curveball and I didn’t like that,” Eovaldi explained.  “And I was leaning heavily on. My cutter.  So the slider kind of fell back in the repertoire.  This offseason I worked on it more.  I worked on the splitter more as well.  And the confidence got back up there and I was consistently throwing the slider for strikes.  Today it showed it feel like.”"

Whatever Nathan Eovaldi did in the offseason to figure things out, it did show on Friday.

Although the team lost, the veteran righty did set the tone for the starting rotation with the strong outing.  With Rodriguez working his way back, it was important for starting rotation to pitch well out of the gate and Eovaldi did that.  Now they just need to get those bats heated up.